


Brace Yourself

by SnowBlizzard



Series: South Park One-Shots [9]
Category: South Park
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkwardness, Braces, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, body issues, kenny is a smart bastard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26650870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowBlizzard/pseuds/SnowBlizzard
Summary: Craig refuses to talk and Tweek can't figure out why. It turns out he might have more problems than Tweek thought.
Relationships: Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak
Series: South Park One-Shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565416
Comments: 10
Kudos: 130





	Brace Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading! :D I really appreciate all the support.
> 
> If you want to join my discord click here: [Fanfic Server :D](https://discord.gg/YwMzZ27)
> 
> As usual thank you [Littledemon66](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littledemon66/pseuds/littledemon66) who beta-reads everything that I post :) <3 (Check them out, they post great stuff :D )

Picking up Craig was usually not a hard task, at least not picking him up for their walk to school. If Tweek actually tried to lift him he'd break his back and probably every bone in his body.

But Craig just stared blankly at him the second he opened the door. He wasn't even dressed in his outside clothes yet! Oh god, was Craig sick? Why hadn't he said hello yet? Not even a nod of acknowledgement? 

Then Craig made an 'x' with his fingers and pointed to his throat. 

"You.. can't talk?" Tweek asked, confused.

Craig nodded, throwing on a jacket. 

"Why?"

Craig just raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh jesus! Ngh, C-Craig- stay home if you're sick! Gah! Don't infect me."

Tricia, who appeared out of nowhere, unhelpfully supplied Craig's answer. "He's not sick, just a pussy."

Craig flipped her off.

Tweek let out a breath of relief. "Ack! Oh jesus- do you wanna, nghh, talk about it?" Craig's always there for him when he's feeling down, maybe Tweek could do the same.

He doesn't get the chance to, mostly because Craig shakes his head and steps out the door.

He doesn't say anything the whole walk to school, just lets Tweek ramble on about gnomes, online arguments and government conspiracies. At one point, when Tweek works himself up to the point of being legitimately angry at someone who'd apparently said something stupid, Craig takes his hand in Tweek's and squeezes.

The anger fleets away.

Clyde makes fun of Craig for not speaking, Token tries to figure out why. Craig just flips them all off.

During lunch he doesn't eat, which is weird. Craig has an abnormally large stomach and eats until he feels remorse for how much he's eaten. 

Kenny comes over to their table, chatting with Clyde about some upcoming movie. Tweek wants to die, they have the same shitty taste in movies, comedies that aren't funny in the slightest and he swears- if Clyde makes them watch American Virgin  _ again _ , Tweek would fucking break. He can't handle 80 minutes of just boobs, it's not a movie, it's softcore porn. 

But then Kenny turns to Craig, "what do you think? Are you excited for the new-?"

"Craig's not talking," Token cuts in.

Kenny frowns, "I know that, dumbass. Let me ask the question first."

Clyde shakes his head, "no, Craig's being pissy and refuses to speak today." Craig flips him off.

Kenny looks at Craig oddly for a second before smirking, "oh? Sorry." Then he just keeps talking to Clyde about shitty movies again. 

The smirk Kenny gave makes Tweek nervous, mostly because he wasn't even looking at Craig, but at  _ him _ , at  _ Tweek _ . 

Tweek forgets all about his nervousness when Clyde, Kenny having walked back to his table, asks "so, how does American Virgin sound for a good movie tonight?" All of Tweek explodes into the most heavy groan he's ever let out, smashing his head against the lunch table while Token firmly tells Clyde that,  _ no, they will not watch a movie that's 80% boobs for the fourth time. _

He's slightly concerned about Craig, but maybe the guy's doing some kind of social experiment or something. Or maybe he's just self-conscious about his teeth again, it's not the first time it's happened. 

So he tries to show Craig he's still good looking by kissing him until he's shaking from how hard he's pressing against his lips, Craig sighs, he fucking  _ sighs _ and pushes Tweek away by the waist. 

Tweek peers owlishly at him, eyes wide because he sighed, in  _ annoyance _ when Tweek kissed him. 

Craig shakes his head, making motions for 'no kissing' with his hands. 

Tweek panics. Does Craig not like him anymore? Is he just with him for convenience? Because they've been together for so long? 

It's more likely that Craig's just not in the mood, but Tweek's mind doesn't even count that as a possibility. "Ngghh, why? Gah!" 

Craig just shakes his head, kissing him quickly on the cheek and going into his own house where Tweek was dropping him off before he got distracted by the thought of kissing him. 

Tweek stomps on his way home, muttering  _ 'asshole' _ under his breath.

Craig refuses to talk the next day too and Tweek can't for the life of him understand why. He prods and tries to get him talking but Craig refuses so Tweek has to sigh and leave it there.

If he's gonna be so fucking difficult, he can deal with his own shit. Because Tweek's not gonna be walked on by his own boyfriend, nope, non, no, he will not be an onwatcher while his boyfriend has some sort of emotional crisis.

Kenny walks up to their table again during lunch, but this time he takes a seat next to Tweek.

"Hey Tweek," he says, not greeting anyone else.

"Ack!" Tweek squeaks in response. "Uh, h-hi Kenny." 

Craig's glaring, Tweek can feel it on the back of his neck where he's turned his head to Kenny. Also because Kenny's eyes shift to the side every few seconds.

"Soooo," Kenny says, "I was wondering if you're free today."

Tweek jumps, not understanding why Kenny's asking, "ngh, I th-think so, why?"

He feels Craig grab his hand under the table, but he's too nervous about what Kenny's intentions are to even intertwine his fingers with Craig's. 

"I was just wondering if you'd seen the new film.. ooh what was it called," Tweek feels Craig's hold on his hand grip harder. "All the Bright Places? Yeah that's the one."

Tweek falters, this is so weird. So very, very weird. "Uh, not yet. But I've gah! Been wanting to see it for a while." It's cheesy and romantic, an odd sort of film for Tweek, but it deals a lot with mental health and Tweek wants to see how accurate it is. 

Kenny gives him a smile. Craig's grip on Tweek's hand becomes crushing. "Craig, will you c-cut it out? That hurts." He hears Craig give off a sigh, and knows he's silently flipping Kenny off. The grip on his hand becomes hard, but not crushing. Tweek adjusts it so his fingers are laced with Craig's. 

"So, do you wanna see it with me this week?" Kenny's eyebrows waggle and suddenly Tweek realises that he's being asked out on a date, while his boyfriend's holding his hand.

Before he can even respond, Craig speaks, "fuck off McCormick, you're a fucking idiot if you think Tweek's gonna leave me for you." Craig's voice has a slight lisp to it that was  _ not _ there before and it makes Tweek wonder a thing or two.

Tweek frowns at both of them, "I don't need you to, ngh, protect me Craig. But he's right, gah! S-sorry."

Kenny smiles, a strange expression on his face. "No problem, I came here for a reason and I got it. No hard feelings, Tweek."

Token and Clyde look at them bewildered at what has just transpired. And Craig cuddles up to him more than he's ever done in public, afraid and self-conscious in a way Tweek hasn't seen before. 

He doesn't ask why Craig doesn't speak when they watch movies at Tweek's house, doesn't talk about the fact that Craig's voice lisped, because he knows Craig won't answer him.

They're watching Hell's Kitchen, and Tweek jumps every time Gordon Ramsay yells particularly loudly or throws some food down. 

One contestant fucks up making scallops, apparently they're undercooked. Tweek takes one look at them before giving Craig his opinion. "It looks like a baby's butt." Because it does, white and round, squishy in a way it shouldn't be. 

Craig laughs and Tweek looks up at him. Something in his mouth shines when he opens it to laugh slightly. Tweek almost falls off the couch with how concerned he is.

So, of course, the next course of action would be to pry Craig's mouth open and remove whatever dangerous, potential metal was residing in his mouth before he swallowed it.

Craig's eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline as Tweek hasilty sits on his lap and tries to pry his lips open.

What he finds instead is metal brackets lining Craig's teeth, bands in blue surrounding the brackets and a large wire drawing between them. Tweek's mouth falls into an 'o' shape. 

At least until Craig, in a weird non-Craig way, pushes him off his lap, closes his mouth, scowls and then flushes. 

"Y-you have braces." Tweek states, now standing on his living room carpet and looking at the red-faced and embarrassed Craig.

"Yeah, obviously," Craig says, the 'sly' lisping. Tweek doesn't tell him he finds that adorable. 

"Why didn't you, ngh, tell me?"

Craig crosses his arms, eyebrows drawn. "I hate it."

Tweek's face softens, he sits next to Craig and takes his hands in his. Satisfied when Craig doesn't take them out. 

"I hate my teeth."

"I know," Tweek says, easily. "They're endearing." Now that Craig's low, he needs to be his rock, just like Craig is for him when he's low. 

"No," Craig counters. "They're ugly and crooked and gross. And my dentist said I had to get braces and it  _ hurts _ . I hate them too, even more."

Tweek gives his hands an easy pat, squeezing them afterward. "I think they're cute."

Craig snorts, "you're gonna change your mind when we kiss and your lip gets caught in them."

Tweek frowns because he  _ will _ , he will freak out if that happens. But they're still cute. "Maybe, but, ngh, Craig, I don't mind them."

Craig just scoffs, disbelieving. He takes his hands out of Tweek's and it makes Tweek's heart crack. 

So he keeps talking. "I know it hurts, I'm sorry. But you could've told me," he tilts his head, trying to get Craig to turn his head and look at him again, but he doesn't. He has his arms crossed and Tweek just wants the guy to look at him, to see he's sincere and that he doesn't care. "Did you really not, gah! Talk for two days so I wouldn't find out?"

Craig sighs, nodding.

" _ Craig _ ," Tweek's voice breaks and he can't believe how Craig, the one who's never given a crap, can be so unsure of himself because of a stupid piece of metal. "I don't care. I just don't like to be left in the dark about these things, in fact… I think they're cool."

Craig finally turns his head, looking at him. "Really." It's not a question and Tweek swallows the lump in his throat.

"Yep."

"They fucking hurt. My gums feel like they're dying."

Tweek laughs, which is the wrong thing to do because Craig turns his head away again, scowling. "It's  _ not _ funny."

Tweek's laughter dies immediately, "no, no, no! I didn't mean it like that! It's just… you're normally so aloof about stuff, it's weird." 

Craig's still not looking at him. "Whatever." 

"Craig, ngh, c'mon. I really don't mind." He tries to prove his point by rubbing up against Craig's side and kissing his cheek. Craig doesn't respond.

Tweek can hear Craig swallow harshly, his voice breaking as he speaks, "just- just go on that stupid date."

"With Kenny?! Gah! No way, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Yeah, well, maybe you should."

Tweek had never expected Craig to have this low of a self esteem. "Craig," he says, serious.

"Craig," he says again when he doesn't react. It's ridiculous that this is all over a piece of metal but Tweek had some underlying feeling that it's not just about that, but also about other things that he hopes Craig will open up about soon enough. "Craig, look at me."

Craig doesn't, so he huffs in irritation, grabbing the noirette's chin and turning his head himself. "I love you," he will not shake, he will not quiver and he will not twitch. "And I don't care if you think you don't deserve that, because you're stuck with me now and no amount of self pity will make me go away. I don't care if you have braces, I wouldn't care even if you had one of those Shelly had before, the kind that wraps around your head. Because _ I love you.  _ Do those words not mean anything to you?" He twitches several times afterward (it's hard to hold them in and usually he can't) but he needs Craig to listen to him, really look and listen. 

Craig's face softens, he sighs. "They do. Fuck, I'm sorry, I love you too Tweek." 

Tweek gives him a small smile, "they're super cute by the way." 

Craig flips him off, but he's opening up and while it's taken years to get to his bottled up emotions, Tweek's glad he's finally opening up behind the middle fingers and scowls.

It might be a bit selfish, but Tweek also likes the fact that he's the only one that gets to see this side of Craig. The awkward, self-conscious side that's not as sure as he seems. Tweek likes that he can be the one to help, the one to cheer him up, remind him he loves him just as he is. He's also glad to be able to repay Craig for all he's done for him, even if it's bit by bit and he might be in emotional debt to Craig his whole life, he doesn't think Craig will mind it. At least, he hopes not.

Kenny later sends him a text saying  _ 'Tell craig i think his braces are sweet' _

Tweek frowns at his phone,  _ 'How do you know?' _

_ 'He was lisping like scott at lunch and didnt eat anything.' _

Tweek laughs lightly; he had a hunch Kenny wasn't flirting with him because he liked him. 

Craig ends up basically living on mashed potatoes for five days until he begins eating normally, with the exception of a few things.

Tweek and Craig both agree that the list of things Craig should avoid is bullshit when it reads 'pizza crust'. Like Craig will avoid that.

Because no, he won't. Even when he sighs heavily as one of his brackets pops out of place while eating said pizza crust and his dentist chastises him. 

Tweek laughs at the retelling of the story, talking about how he'll have to eat soggy crust. Craig makes a gagging sound but smiles about three seconds later so Tweek doesn't think he's too disappointed.

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually kind of based on my feelings with getting braces but I still loved writing it! :D 
> 
> I appreciate kudos and comments a lot! I read every single comment even if I don't reply! :)


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